Tag Archives: networking

Okay, so tomorrow is the reveal date for the Pitch Wars contest, hosted by the esteemed Brenda Drake and supported by seventy-five awesome mentors! If you haven’t heard about Pitch Wars, you’re missing out. Agented writers, editors, or industry interns pick one mentee and one alternate each, offer feedback and suggestions on their manuscripts and pitches, and turn them loose a few months later on unsuspecting (suspecting?) agents who are looking to take on clients.

So I’m waiting to hear what happened. Here’s how it FEELS:

It’s a War in There!

But this is how the folks at Pitch Wars ARE:

Float like a butterfly…

No matter what happens, I’m happy to have thrown my hat into the ring. And what have I learned? There’s a lot of wonderful folks out there who are willing to give of themselves and their talents to help poor schlubs like me! Whether it’s a fellow potential mentee, Pitch Wars mentors, or agents, everyone wants to help and support.

So is it really a war? In only one way I can see–each writer has to fight the good fight with themselves, fight to get their butt in a chair and write, edit, and submit until their dream comes true.

Whether I get picked or not, I fully intend to belt out a rousing chorus of “We Are the Champions” to commemorate the occasion. Feel free to join in and celebrate our victory!

Cute little buggers, aren’t they? Adorable as they are, they can also stand for an addiction or a problem you just can’t seem to kick. A bad habit. A burden.

How do you get rid of the monkey, or at least keep it manageable? Like any problem, the first step is to acknowledge what it is. Although I have several that cling to me, correspondence seems to be one that I struggle with on a routine basis. Phone calls, letters, emails, tweets, you name it, I’ve let it slide. A few days or even a few weeks later, I’ll be playing catch-up and apologizing for my absence. That’s a serious problem, because writers need to keep those communication channels open and information flowing freely back and forth.

So that’s the problem. Probably doesn’t seem too daunting to you, but for me it’s a constant annoyance and something I want to change, because it could stand in the way of succeeding as a writer. I could lose opportunities to network, opportunities to submit or publish my writing, if I don’t fix it. The question is not only am I WILLING to change, but how COMMITTED am I? Here’s where you sit down with yourself and really think about what’s at stake if you don’t change. Is it important to you? Why?

Change can be difficult. Period. Please don’t go overboard and try for perfection, here! Set small, manageable goals at first and step your way up to where you eventually want to be. For example, my goal is to post a blog entry this week. Success! And I’m feeling pretty good about that. Perhaps I’ll add another small goal in another area, such as answering tweets within 24 hours, and see how that goes. If that’s too much, I’ll know I stepped up too fast and have to back that expectation down a bit. Even if you don’t make it, treat it matter-of-factly instead of chastising yourself—remember, the goal is not perfection and beating yourself up never helps. You might even want to stay at a certain level for a few weeks and allow that to become comfortable before bumping it up a notch.

And if you totally derail along the way? You’re not alone! Relapse is common when you attempt to make a change. Take a deep breath and give yourself the gift of a clean slate before trying again. Examine what got in the way of continuing your new behaviors and think how you might address that. If you need help, get it—pride’s great and all, but if whatever you want to change is important enough or damaging enough, throw pride out the window. I know it’s tough, how well I know—but you can do it!

All right, no more monkeying around—time to show this monkey who’s boss!